If you are looking for humbuckers I'd say your best bet is to search within the Westone Spectrum line. The benefit here being that the family lineage extends back many years to the Electra Phoenix line of models as well.

This is an Electra/Westone x185 Phoenix from the 18 month or so period of time when Electra as a brand was morphing into the Westone brand.

This particular model line has 2 big benefits going for it. The first is the seemingly endless configutations of pups, coil splits or taps, signal reverses and so forth. The second benefit which IMHO is far more attractive is that these axes are damn near as close to bulletproof as anything that was ever built by any manufacturer, Matsumoku or otherwise.

Last edited by Iceman on Mon Apr 25, 2016 3:52 pm; edited 3 times in total (Reason for editing : Autocorrect)

Yup, in my experience Spectrum FXs are fine gigging guitars. My Silverstone FX cost me £100 a couple of years ago and needed one knob (thanks to TVill25 I had a spare when I put two of his resin knobs on my Spectrum ST), a new jack socket and restringing to make him good to go.

While the other Wyld Bird Seed guitarist is faffing about changing between Les Paul and Epiphone Casino, I can get a far greater range of sounds, and I hardly ever go out of phase or drop the middle pickup. He also seems to spend an inordinate amount of time tuning - the FX stays in tune excellently. The only reason I bring a spare guitar to gigs is that once I broke a string and that threw out the tuning - reloading immediately was quicker than restringing. Fortunately I have a near identical Silverstone Spectrum GT as a backup

Specs are great, aren't they?! I'd love one - an FX - but the only one I ever really had a crack at - in a Cash Converters in Rotorua, NZ in about 2008 - was a exercise in frustration as the thing was over-priced, but not by a lot and the poxy manager wouldn't budge on the price. I kissed it off and walked away, even though I had the money in my pocket; I hate wankers like that in pawn shops!

I do like my LX and my GT and would happily gig them; I also have an Electra X195 which is the owner of a unique sound, being S/H/S layout; the Westone Thunder 3, version III does the same thing with a set neck - I fancy one of them, too!!

_________________FWIW, an after market esoteric nut is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and a great way to convert your money into someone else’s.

I am a huge Spectrum fan and I played an ST for years in the band. But that's getting close to CAD$300 so yes, that's pricey, even with new pickups. Might be easier to judge if we knew what's actually in there. No case either.